The Pixel 8 Pro doesn’t have the upgrade I really want

It’s August, which means the wild rumors about Google’s upcoming Pixel 8 series have died down, and we know pretty much everything there is to know about it. Of course, Google can still surprise us with a few cool features and software additions that were never leaked, but the rumor mill is rarely wrong when it comes to hard specs. And this is where I realized my frustration with the upcoming Pixel 8 Pro lies.

One spec, specifically the 27W charging speed, leaves me a little lukewarm. It’s the one area where my Pixel 7 Pro currently fails me, repeatedly, and the upgrade I’d wanted with its successor.

When information leaked about faster charging with the Pixel 8 series, I was ecstatic. I expected to see the numbers jump from 23W on the Pixel 7 Pro to somewhere near 45W on the 8 Pro. That seems to be the sweet spot between faster charging and battery life, but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case. An increase of 4W is unlikely to result in any significant gains in charging speed or reduction in charging time.

And at this point in 2023, the 27W feels like a holdover from previous Android flagships. Spending nearly two hours tethered to a wall to get your phone fully charged isn’t practical, as our Pixel 7 Pro charging test showed. Almost everyone is better; Google should do better.

On any routine day, I don’t care about the charging speed. I just plug in my phone before I go to bed and the battery is magically topped up when I’m awake. Who cares if it takes 120 minutes, 60 minutes, or even two minutes as long as I sleep through it all?

But life is not just routine. There are days when I need to use my phone a lot more, with Google Maps and pictures and music streaming going on for hours. The Pixel series and its Tensor processors aren’t the best at battery management – we already know that – so my phone’s battery is often dead by early afternoon. Plugging in for two hours in the middle of the day, even on a portable battery – indeed, especially on a portable battery – is not ideal. Not to mention the overheating from charging and using the phone at the same time.

These are the days I long for a faster charging Pixel. It’s just frustrating to think that my phone gets everything right, in my opinion, but fails me on the days I need it most. I appreciate its camera, its exclusive Pixel features and its balance between power and price, but I’m often annoyed by how quickly its battery drains and how slowly it charges.

For those of you worried about battery life, other Android brands have solved that. Samsung and Xiaomi, for example, provide an on-demand button to enable faster charging. And in an ideal world, Google would do the same and add the switch to stock Android.

Faster charging shouldn’t be the default setting on the Pixel 8 or any upcoming Pixels; just give me a switch i can turn on to speed up charging when i know i need it. Busy days when I’m busy or when I’m back in Lebanon and I know the next blackout is in 20 minutes. I want the peace of mind that comes with having this as a backup option. And I would definitely give up the mildly useful thermometer in exchange for that.

But it looks like I’ll have to spend another year with this restriction, worrying about using my phone too much on a busy day and how long it will take to top it up again. Maybe it’s Google’s way of forcing us all into digital wellness? Ha!